SAN FRANCISCO – Federal authorities have arrested a man they say intended to detonate a car bomb in front of a Northern California bank.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday that authorities had arrested 28-year-old Matthew Aaron Llaneza on Thursday night following a multi-month sting operation in which an undercover FBI agent helped Llaneza build an explosive that the agent secretly rendered inoperable.

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The FBI says it had been tracking Llaneza for months and arrested him after he tried to set off the bomb with a cellphone in front of a Bank of America branch in Oakland.

The FBI says Llaneza hoped to spark a civil war by making the bomb blast appear to be the work of anti-government "militias."